Dots vs Muse vs Grok Bot: three always-on AI agents, compared

One of them is US-only. One needs a $100/mo plan. One is still in beta. Here's which is which.

The short version 🧭

• OpenAI dots = ongoing work. An always-on agent inside ChatGPT with its own cloud computer.
• Meta Muse = personal life. Bookings, shopping, forms, reminders and long-term goals, in an app or WhatsApp.
• Grok Bot = AI teams. Named bots with jobs that work inside your tools, 24/7.

Side by side 📊

1. OpenAI dots 🟢

What it is. A personal agent that lives inside ChatGPT. You give it an ongoing goal and connect the apps it may use. It gets its own cloud computer, keeps working between your conversations, and reports back. OpenAI's framing: "Think of your dot as an extension of you. It learns how you work, spots what needs attention, and uses its own computer to move your projects forward."

Launched. 29 September 2026. Rolling out gradually, so it may take days to appear in your account.

What it does well

• Ongoing work, not one-off tasks. Give it a project and it keeps making progress and comes back with updates.
• Connected apps. OpenAI says dots can "readily connect to over 4,000 apps" through the plugin system, including email, Slack and Microsoft Teams.
• Memory that carries over. Your dot receives your ChatGPT memories and builds its own, including from connected apps.
• Doesn't use your normal limits. Dot conversations don't count toward your regular ChatGPT usage.
• Powered by GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's most capable model.

Pricing

• Your first dot is included at no extra cost on Pro and Business Premium. Pro is $100/month (the $200 Pro tier has been paused to new sign-ups since 10 September).
• Enterprise, Edu and Healthcare: beta, and off until an admin enables it.
• No free tier. OpenAI says you'll later be able to add more dots and pay to scale a dot's speed or monthly workload. Those prices aren't published yet.

Privacy and data

• Personal accounts: you control whether your dot's conversations and work are used to improve OpenAI's models. OpenAI says it doesn't train directly on your dot's proactive research or notes.
• Business, Enterprise and Edu: not used for training by default.
• Access to your local computer is optional and starts turned off.
• Disconnecting an app doesn't delete what your dot already learned from it, and the only way to wipe a dot's own memories is to delete the dot.

Limitations

• ⚠️ Not available to Pro users in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK. Business Premium gets it across all supported regions.
• You can't create a dot on mobile, and dots aren't supported on mobile web. Set it up on desktop or web first.
• Your dot can't call you (at launch). Sensitive actions like changing a password always stay with you.
• Three approval modes: act without asking, act if pre-approved, or ask before acting. Anything that could affect your accounts goes through OpenAI's auto-review. OpenAI's own line: "Dots can still make mistakes, so always review consequential work."

2. Meta Muse 🔵

What it is. A personal AI agent from Meta for everyday life. It runs in its own app, on muse.ai, and inside WhatsApp. In Meta's words: "It can handle tasks, like sending an email or booking travel, and it can take on big audacious goals. Once a person shares a goal with Muse, it helps them develop a personalized plan and coordinate their time and resources, then advances the work on its own. It can open a browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on their behalf."

Launched. 8 September 2026. A business version, Muse for Small Business, followed on 29 September. Glasses support and a pocket device called Muse Charm are promised for later this year.

What it does well

• Errands and admin. Bookings, forms, purchases, follow-ups, reminders.
• Long-term goals. Share a goal and it builds a plan and keeps working toward it, checking in when something changes or needs approval.
• Keeps going after you close the app, and comes back before it sends an email or spends money.
• Remembers things you said once and acts on them unprompted.
• Shopping built for agents. Checkout uses Stripe's Link with a one-time card, so Muse never sees your real card. Shop Pay and 1Password support are coming.
• Small-business version connects Shopify, QuickBooks, Klaviyo, Notion, Slack, Canva, Zoom, and your Facebook, Instagram and Meta ads in one step.

Pricing

Privacy and data

• Each person's agent and data live in a dedicated virtual machine Meta calls Muse Secure VM. A gatekeeper Meta calls Sentinel approves every action and every connection to the internet.
• Muse has no visibility into your passwords or payment methods.
• Your conversations and VM data aren't shared with Meta's ad systems.
• ⚠️ Training is on by default. Meta says people "can also opt out of their interactions being used to train Meta's AI models." Switch it off if that matters to you.
• You choose which apps it connects to and how much access it gets, can disconnect any time, can tell it to forget things, and get a full audit trail. A Confidential VM option, encrypted with a key only you hold, is promised for later this year.

Limitations

• ⚠️ US and Canada only, 18 and over. Meta's own words: "We're working to bring Muse to more markets, and we're taking a measured approach in each one. We don't have additional timing to share now." If you're outside North America, you can't use it yet.
• Built around personal and small-business life, not deep research or technical work.
• Nothing publishes, sends or spends without your approval.

3. Grok Bot ⚫

What it is. Named AI coworkers, each with a job, memory and its own cloud computer. The official name is two words: Grok Bot. It runs as its own app, not inside the Grok chat app or X. The announcement describes bots that "sign into the tools you already use and work across apps, inboxes, and more" and "finish jobs end to end, and only come back when something needs your approval." A shared version called Team Bots lets a whole team work from one bot's context.

Launched. 11 August 2026, in beta. Team Bots followed on 28 September. One thing to know: the product is published on x.ai but runs on Cursor accounts and infrastructure, and the announcement refers to the company as "SpaceXAI".

What it does well

• Role-based bots. Official templates include Sales Outbound, Talent Scout, Paid Media, Expense Manager, Product Performance, Bug Reproduction, Account Health and Chief of Staff. You can also define your own.
• Memory that compounds. "A named Bot keeps its memory, files, browser sessions, and preferences across sessions."
• Routines. Show it a workflow once, correct it, and it saves it as a routine and runs it on its own next time.
• Works inside real tools: Salesforce, Notion, GitHub, Linear, Datadog, Databricks, Slack, Gmail and more.
• Separate usage. Work you hand to a bot doesn't count against your Grok or Cursor limits.

Pricing

• Included with SuperGrok, SuperGrok Plus and SuperGrok Heavy, and with Cursor Pro, Pro+ and Ultra, plus Cursor Teams Standard and Premium.
• Pricing page shows SuperGrok at $30/month, Cursor Pro at $20/month and Cursor Teams at $40 per seat/month. The higher tiers didn't render cleanly — check x.ai/bot for those.
• Each plan includes weekly usage. Beyond that, extra usage is billed on token cost.
• No free tier. Enterprise is on a waitlist.

Privacy and data

• Each bot's cloud computer is encrypted in transit and at rest, with a training opt-out. With Cursor's Privacy Mode on, your data isn't used for training.
• A bot can never hold more access than the person it belongs to. For logins, two-factor codes and payments, it hands the computer back to you rather than typing credentials.
• An independent review model, Auto Review, checks risky actions before they run. The docs recommend "ask first" rules for sending, publishing, deleting, purchasing or changing production systems.
• Because it needs cloud storage, Cursor's older Legacy Privacy Mode isn't supported.

Limitations

• ⚠️ Beta. Expect rough edges and changes.
• You need an existing SuperGrok or Cursor subscription. There's no standalone plan.
• Supported regions aren't stated anywhere on the official pages.
• Maximum number of bots and routine limits aren't published.

Pros and cons at a glance ⚖️

How to choose 🔑

• You want one agent to own a long-running project, and you already pay for ChatGPT Pro: dots.
• You want help with your actual life, you're in the US or Canada, and you want to start free: Muse.
• You want several agents with different jobs, sharing context, and you use Cursor or SuperGrok: Grok Bot.
• You're outside North America, on a budget, or want something out of beta: read on.

Three strong alternatives 🔁

Each of these does the same kind of always-on, hand-it-off work, and each is better documented or more widely available than at least one of the three above.

1. Claude Cowork with scheduled tasks (Anthropic)

Give Claude a goal and it works across your files and connected tools. Anthropic's line: "Close your laptop, it keeps going. Schedule a task for any cadence, and it runs unattended." Scheduled tasks run in the cloud with no device online. Runs on Mac and Windows desktop, web, iOS and Android, and in Chrome.

• Plans: Pro ($17/mo annual or $20 monthly), Max ($100 or $200/mo), Team ($20/seat/mo), Enterprise. Not on Free.
• Control: three connector modes. Manual pauses and asks before every action; Auto acts; Skip turns off automatic checking.
• Why it's here: the most widely available of the agent products, with no US-only restriction stated, and Team and Enterprise data isn't used for training by default.

2. Gemini Spark (Google)

Google's consumer agent, launched 19 May 2026. "Give it a task and it works in the background 24/7, even if your phone and laptop are turned off." Deeply tied to Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, with Canva, OpenTable and Instacart among the first partners. Supports scheduled and conditional tasks.

• Plans: Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers, 18+, in select countries. Not available in the EEA, UK, Switzerland or Nigeria.
• Control: asks before high-stakes actions like spending money or sending email, and before every web-browsing task.
• Know this: Google says Spark "will share necessary info with third parties", including your name, contact details and files, to complete tasks. Requires "Keep Activity" on.
• Why it's here: the closest thing to Muse for people who live in Google Workspace, and available in far more countries.

3. Manus

A general-purpose agent that researches, builds and runs tasks across your tools, with scheduled automations and outputs like slides, websites and reports. Connects to Slack, Notion, GitHub, Google Calendar, custom MCP servers, and 8,000+ apps through Zapier.

• Free ($0, 300 credits a day, 1 task at a time, 2 scheduled automations, lighter model only).
• Pro from $20/month (4,000 credits) or $40/month (8,000 credits, 7-day trial). Team from $20 per seat. Pro and Team allow 20 concurrent tasks and 20 scheduled automations.
• Why it's here: the only option in this guide with a real free tier that includes scheduled automations, and no stated country restriction.

The honest bit ⚠️

Sources 🔗